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Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again

NeverTrump

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It doesn't take long for people to get tricked into watching a flat earth YouTube video. And this is where the danger begins. Spend enough time on YT and you're bound to run into at least one CT video and from there you go down the rabbit hole. While I suspect that the majority of the Flat Earth society leaders or more famous YT presenters are just trolls looking to dupe people. The growth of this CT has been pretty alarming to me. Usually some celebrity like YouTuber Logan Paul and NBA star Kyrie Irving tries to join the group but realizes that it's just nuts. I'm left wondering how long before one of them sticks with it and it gains true notoriety...

This is the real currency in the Flat Earth community. Between speeches, everyone is showing each other YouTube videos on their phones. People reference each other by their YouTube names, and twice when I leave my seat I return to find advertisements for YouTube channels on the chair. A panel on Women in Flat Earth is more of a how-to on running a Flat Earth YouTube channel while female.

Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again
 
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It doesn't take long for people to get tricked into watching a flat earth YouTube video. And this is where the danger begins. Spend enough time on YT and you're bound to run into at least one CT video and from there you go down the rabbit hole. While I suspect that the majority of the Flat Earth society leaders or more famous YT presenters are just trolls looking to dupe people. The growth of this CT has been pretty alarming to me. Usually some celebrity like YouTuber Logan Paul and NBA star Kyrie Irving tries to join the group but realizes that it's just nuts. I'm left wondering how long before one of them sticks with it and it gains true notoriety...



Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again

If you're spending enough time looking up/watching CT video trash in order to come across one every now and then that is your fault. Remember, the algorithms are designed to present to the types of videos that you watch. Personally, most of my feed on YT is filled with music, games, and a little bit of various news channels. So, you telling us this actually reveals more of what YOU'RE watching than it does anything CT.
 
It doesn't take long for people to get tricked into watching a flat earth YouTube video. And this is where the danger begins. Spend enough time on YT and you're bound to run into at least one CT video and from there you go down the rabbit hole. While I suspect that the majority of the Flat Earth society leaders or more famous YT presenters are just trolls looking to dupe people. The growth of this CT has been pretty alarming to me. Usually some celebrity like YouTuber Logan Paul and NBA star Kyrie Irving tries to join the group but realizes that it's just nuts. I'm left wondering how long before one of them sticks with it and it gains true notoriety...



Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again

I cannot get over the irony of flying to a Flat Earth conference. :mrgreen:
 
I wonder what percentage of their membership only does it ironically.
 
If you're spending enough time looking up/watching CT video trash in order to come across one every now and then that is your fault. Remember, the algorithms are designed to present to the types of videos that you watch. Personally, most of my feed on YT is filled with music, games, and a little bit of various news channels. So, you telling us this actually reveals more of what YOU'RE watching than it does anything CT.

Nope. I've seen where people were doing tests and all they were doing was watching cartoons or something and then they get into some weird **** that has nothing to do with what they originally looked up.

For instance. I only use YouTube to watch movie trailers and late night hosts. But if I check out one or two political videos I'm constantly bombarded by those videos or videos related to politics. From then it's not hard to come across a CT video.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It doesn't take long for people to get tricked into watching a flat earth YouTube video. And this is where the danger begins. Spend enough time on YT and you're bound to run into at least one CT video and from there you go down the rabbit hole. While I suspect that the majority of the Flat Earth society leaders or more famous YT presenters are just trolls looking to dupe people. The growth of this CT has been pretty alarming to me. Usually some celebrity like YouTuber Logan Paul and NBA star Kyrie Irving tries to join the group but realizes that it's just nuts. I'm left wondering how long before one of them sticks with it and it gains true notoriety...



Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again

I wish I had attended. I could not have resisted to "poke the bear" just a little.

ie...get a small broach and clip it on my collar semi-concealed and then talk into it when i think people aren't looking but are. Trying to look like a government plant, sent there to spy on them.

Maybe do some research on "lizard people" and behave like one of those in human costume. Not eat any of the refreshments but instead get some gummy bugs and color them with realistic food coloring and only eat out of a bag of those. Move my head in short jerky motions.

I worked with one psycho who thought a group of 1,000 people were conspiring to ruin his life. I kid you not. I would pretend I am talking on the phone then say, " Gotta go now, he's coming" when i saw him approach and hang up quickly. sometimes look at him intently and pretend to write something down, then look away fast and pretend i was doing something else.

I love tin foil hat people. They will believe anything.
 
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It doesn't take long for people to get tricked into watching a flat earth YouTube video. And this is where the danger begins. Spend enough time on YT and you're bound to run into at least one CT video and from there you go down the rabbit hole. While I suspect that the majority of the Flat Earth society leaders or more famous YT presenters are just trolls looking to dupe people. The growth of this CT has been pretty alarming to me. Usually some celebrity like YouTuber Logan Paul and NBA star Kyrie Irving tries to join the group but realizes that it's just nuts. I'm left wondering how long before one of them sticks with it and it gains true notoriety...



Inside the Flat Earth Conference, Where the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory Is Hot Again

Red and off-topic:
Do people, material quantities of them, that is, actually "spend time" on YT -- in the sense that, say, my lady friends spend time, "kills time," browsing in various retail stores -- as as opposed to going there to find a specific video for a specific purpose?

I have no doubt folks do, but I wouldn't have thought folks just hang out on YT looking around to see what's there, which is something my lady friends do at least once a week before or after lunching with friends, before or after working out, before or after going to a movie/play, and before or after just about anything else that gives them a reason to be in the rough vicinity of stores....And most of the time, it doesn't much matter what kind of stores -- florists, grocers, art, jewelers, clothing (men's, women's or children's), furniture, bed and bath, appliances, plumbing, nurseries, books, sporting goods, etc. They are just nonpareil "hunter-gatherers." And, no, I don't understand that either; I just didn't imagine that many folks may do the same as goes YT.

Maybe it's just one of those things like "men scratch their balls, women shop/browse, and people of either sex cruise YT."
 
Why and how the hell anyone can think the Earth is flat is beyond me.


For Pete's sake, for as long as humans have been looking at the Moon, not one has seen a shadow of the Earth cast upon the Moon that corresponds to the Earth being flat.

EarthFlat_Eclipse-615x206.png

Show me a "flat Earther" and I'll show you someone with whom I wouldn't spend a hot minute conversing. Those people are so abjectly stupid and ignorant that I haven't any time for them, not even time to tell them the time of day because if the Earth were flat, our method of measuring and reporting time would be different -- namely, it'd be the same time everywhere at once; there'd be no need for time zones, so we wouldn't have them.
 
Nope. I've seen where people were doing tests and all they were doing was watching cartoons or something and then they get into some weird **** that has nothing to do with what they originally looked up.

For instance. I only use YouTube to watch movie trailers and late night hosts. But if I check out one or two political videos I'm constantly bombarded by those videos or videos related to politics. From then it's not hard to come across a CT video.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You talk about conspiracy theories all of the time here. Obviously you're interested in them which is why YouTube's algorithm recommends them for you.

Mine are full of kids learning videos, makeup tutorials and The Greatest Showman.
 
You talk about conspiracy theories all of the time here. Obviously you're interested in them which is why YouTube's algorithm recommends them for you.

Mine are full of kids learning videos, makeup tutorials and The Greatest Showman.

But that's the problem right? If I look up conspiracy debunking videos I will almost certainly get a video about the new world order and how people don't want you to know what's in such and such video. Why? Because the NWO Video is more popular.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Red and off-topic:
Do people, material quantities of them, that is, actually "spend time" on YT -- in the sense that, say, my lady friends spend time, "kills time," browsing in various retail stores -- as as opposed to going there to find a specific video for a specific purpose?

I have no doubt folks do, but I wouldn't have thought folks just hang out on YT looking around to see what's there, which is something my lady friends do at least once a week before or after lunching with friends, before or after working out, before or after going to a movie/play, and before or after just about anything else that gives them a reason to be in the rough vicinity of stores....And most of the time, it doesn't much matter what kind of stores -- florists, grocers, art, jewelers, clothing (men's, women's or children's), furniture, bed and bath, appliances, plumbing, nurseries, books, sporting goods, etc. They are just nonpareil "hunter-gatherers." And, no, I don't understand that either; I just didn't imagine that many folks may do the same as goes YT.

Maybe it's just one of those things like "men scratch their balls, women shop/browse, and people of either sex cruise YT."

Most use YouTube just to kill time but then you have people who take everything they see on the site like gospel. "I saw it on YouTube. So it must be true." It doesn't matter what the source is. Even here when people post YouTube videos and I question the source I'm ridiculed because I should be watching the video not looking up to see if the source is credible in any way, shape, or form.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
But that's the problem right? If I look up conspiracy debunking videos I will almost certainly get a video about the new world order and how people don't want you to know what's in such and such video. Why? Because the NWO Video is more popular.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, there you go. You're looking up conspiracy theory videos so YouTube thinks you're interested in conspiracy theory videos. Or do you think this, too, is a conspiracy?
 
Well, there you go. You're looking up conspiracy theory videos so YouTube thinks you're interested in conspiracy theory videos. Or do you think this, too, is a conspiracy?

Um no. You get so much wrong here.

1. I'm not looking up conspiracy videos. It's the opposite
2. I'm not saying YouTube is part of a CT to trick people.

I'm saying that a tech company needs to do a much better job and be held accountable for their algorithms which are brainwashing kids at a very young age. But since all you do is play gotcha games on the internet. I don't think you have the capacity to understand that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm saying that a tech company needs to do a much better job and be held accountable for their algorithms which are brainwashing kids at a very young age.
Well young kids shouldn’t be using YouTube unsupervised in the first place and anyway, children seem better able to see through this kind of thing – it’s mostly middle-aged adults who get drawn in to them.

YouTube doesn’t brainwash anyone with their algorithms at all and beyond anything illegal or against their terms and conditions, they’re not responsible for the contents of the videos or how the viewer chooses to respond to them. Their algorithms are entirely about getting us to watch as much as possible because that’s ultimately where their profits come from. The suggestions they’ll present to you, on the main page and following other videos will be based on a range of factors but it’s obviously in their interest to present videos you’re likely to watch.

I suspect that if you’re watching lots of the same thing, you won’t see anything different but if you watch only one or two of a different type of video, the algorithms will see that as a potential in to widen your viewing and so offer you a lot of new options off the back of them. If you ignore all of those follow-up recommendations, I expect they’d disappear again, replaced by suggestions based on what you do watch (be it new or more of the same).
 
Most use YouTube just to kill time but then you have people who take everything they see on the site like gospel. "I saw it on YouTube. So it must be true." It doesn't matter what the source is. Even here when people post YouTube videos and I question the source I'm ridiculed because I should be watching the video not looking up to see if the source is credible in any way, shape, or form.
Blue:
At least you show the discursive integrity and interpersonal respect of carefully consuming and considering -- or attempting to do those things even if your actual consideration may later be found jejune -- the content in the video or other referenced content.


Red:
There's really only one circumstance in which the credibility of the speaker in a video, text, audio, etc. matters: the speaker utters an unsupported (in the current video, speech, essay, etc.) assertion/conclusion. Unsupported assertions require that:
  • the speaker be an expert on the topic who has obtained the acclaim (tacit or explicit) of his/her subject-matter peers,
  • s/he has a track record of telling the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth (factually and contextually, and
  • s/he has a track record of performing analysis that's far more often accurate (factually and contextually) than it is inaccurate.
 
1. I'm not looking up conspiracy videos. It's the opposite
2. I'm not saying YouTube is part of a CT to trick people.

1. Yes, you are looking up conspiracy theory videos. You're obviously searching for the words "conspiracy theory." You might be looking for conspiracy theory DEBUNKING, but you're still going to be recommended to watch ANY conspiracy theory video that's popular. If someone types in that they want to watch a video on how to not mess up when deep frying a turkey for Thanksgiving, they're probably going to be recommended to watch any video about deep frying turkeys. When I search for and am subscribed to Jaclyn Hill, for instance, YT is also going to recommend gossip channels about how Jaclyn Hill is Satan reincarnate. That's just how it works.

2. It was tongue-in-cheek. A play on words, if you will. Lighten up.

I'm saying that a tech company needs to do a much better job and be held accountable for their algorithms which are brainwashing kids at a very young age.

I'm not sure what about the algorithm that has you so confused. It's really very simple. Explained above. You will be recommended to watch videos that are similar or on topic to whatever you search for. If you think a video is against their TOS and something kids shouldn't be seeing, report it.
 
Red and off-topic:
Do people, material quantities of them, that is, actually "spend time" on YT -- in the sense that, say, my lady friends spend time, "kills time," browsing in various retail stores -- as as opposed to going there to find a specific video for a specific purpose?

I have no doubt folks do, but I wouldn't have thought folks just hang out on YT looking around to see what's there, which is something my lady friends do at least once a week before or after lunching with friends, before or after working out, before or after going to a movie/play, and before or after just about anything else that gives them a reason to be in the rough vicinity of stores....And most of the time, it doesn't much matter what kind of stores -- florists, grocers, art, jewelers, clothing (men's, women's or children's), furniture, bed and bath, appliances, plumbing, nurseries, books, sporting goods, etc. They are just nonpareil "hunter-gatherers." And, no, I don't understand that either; I just didn't imagine that many folks may do the same as goes YT.

Maybe it's just one of those things like "men scratch their balls, women shop/browse, and people of either sex cruise YT."

Sadly, I am one of them.
But i scratch my balls while doing it. Does that count for something?

They have some very good alternative history videos there, and some good real historical too.
Once I saw the entire SHARPE's series on YT.
Awesome mini-series.
 
Sadly, I am one of them.
But i scratch my balls while doing it. Does that count for something?

They have some very good alternative history videos there, and some good real historical too.
Once I saw the entire SHARPE's series on YT.
Awesome mini-series.

Which "them" are you one of? One of the people who "'spend time' on YT -- in the sense that, say, my lady friends spend time, 'kill time,' browsing in various retail stores -- as as opposed to going there to find a specific video for a specific purpose?"


Red:
Perhaps in some quarters.....
 
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Which "them" are you one of?

Too sick to work anymore.
Had to sell my house in the city and move to my smaller house in the woods.
Sit around the house and be a pain-in-the-ass to the wife as she works from home.
Tend to my four cats as they give me their healing auras.
Make cabinets, display boxes, and just bought a new and decent DeWalt table saw to do more.
Amuse myself with YT videos at zero-dark-thirty and yack on DP.
Oh...and use night vision to observe the wild hogs, raccoons, opossums, and other denizens of the night on my property.
That is the "one of them" I have become.

At least I do not let politics eat up my heart and soul like I have seen it do to some on here.
Give me that much credit, my friend.
 
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Too sick to work anymore.
Had to sell my house in the city and move to my smaller house in the woods.
Sit around the house and be a pain-in-the-ass to the wife as she works from home.
Tend to my four cats as they give me their healing auras.
Make cabinets, display boxes, and just bought a new and decent DeWalt table saw to do more.
Amuse myself with YT videos at zero-dark-thirty and yack on DP.
Oh...and use night vision to observe the wild hogs, raccoons, opossums, and other denizens of the night on my property.
That is the "one of them" I have become.

At least I do not let politics eat up my heart and soul like I have seen it do to some on here.
Give me that much credit, my friend.
Red:
Your life is yours to lead as you see fit, so I have nothing to say about that.

I merely want to note that cabinetmaking has been a long-standing and well regarded vocation for, literally, centuries.
It just seems odd that you remark that you're "too sick to work anymore," yet you make cabinets. That seems like work to me.
 
Red:
Your life is yours to lead as you see fit, so I have nothing to say about that.

I merely want to note that cabinetmaking has been a long-standing and well regarded vocation for, literally, centuries.
It just seems odd that you remark that you're "too sick to work anymore," yet you make cabinets. That seems like work to me.

Thank you for your kind words.
I hope you understood my first answer to not be confrontational. That was not its intent.

I was a hotel manager who recently got moved into corporate management. Director of all thing related to housekeeping in my four state area with the exclusion of most large cities.
They have their own managers.

Cabinet making is work, yes, but I do it on my own time and at my own pace.
I am slowly becoming a local hit with the gun nuts by custom making display cases for their handguns.
 
Thank you for your kind words.
I hope you understood my first answer to not be confrontational. That was not its intent.

I was a hotel manager who recently got moved into corporate management. Director of all thing related to housekeeping in my four state area with the exclusion of most large cities.
They have their own managers.

Cabinet making is work, yes, but I do it on my own time and at my own pace.
I am slowly becoming a local hit with the gun nuts by custom making display cases for their handguns.
You're welcome. I hope your health improves, or at least doesn't worsen.

I most certainly didn't think your reply confrontational. I thought it somewhat evasive. Nonetheless, I merely just took your remarks at face value for I don't know you well enough to have taken them any other way, and there were no literary cues militating for my decoding them as anything other than a literal depictions of your thoughts about your status and habits.

Red:

07whdZjmXBByeg-fZ.jpeg


Yep....That's characteristic of self-employment.

I happened to have been a self-employed management consultant for about 20 years before I sold the firm to a larger firm, whereupon I remained self-employed, but merely a principal in a firm that was far larger than my own. In both firms, I worked on my own time and at my own pace.
  • Sought only engagements I wanted to win. (I didn't win every one, but I didn't go after any I didn't want to do.)
  • Accepted only engagements I wanted to perform and for which the client's and my thoughts about performance were compatible.
  • Withdrew from consideration (prior to winning the project) if/when it became clear there would be a material lacuna between my principles/methodology and the client's.
Upon joining the new firm, the main difference is that my sold, managed and delivered goals were determined by more than just what I thought they should be; however, there wasn't a material disconnect between what my bosses wanted of me and what I wanted for myself -- they're slightly less "people oriented" than I, but that was about it -- so not much changed.

With the affinity your developing among "gun nuts" you have the makings of a new career...After all, a case that displays guns is just a step away from a case for china, silver, books, etc., and you can certainly erect a "velvet rope," never having to accept a commission you don't want.



1_leonardo_da_vinci_self_portrait_no1.jpg


To wit, one of my former schoolmates is a sculptor. He accepted two commissions from me and declined another. He just didn't like the idea and didn't want to do it, so he didn't. He and I are still on good terms and I found someone else to do the job.
 
You're welcome. I hope your health improves, or at least doesn't worsen.

I most certainly didn't think your reply confrontational. I thought it somewhat evasive. Nonetheless, I merely just took your remarks at face value for I don't know you well enough to have taken them any other way, and there were no literary cues militating for my decoding them as anything other than a literal depictions of your thoughts about your status and habits.

Red:

07whdZjmXBByeg-fZ.jpeg


Yep....That's characteristic of self-employment.

I happened to have been a self-employed management consultant for about 20 years before I sold the firm to a larger firm, whereupon I remained self-employed, but merely a principal in a firm that was far larger than my own. In both firms, I worked on my own time and at my own pace.
  • Sought only engagements I wanted to win. (I didn't win every one, but I didn't go after any I didn't want to do.)
  • Accepted only engagements I wanted to perform and for which the client's and my thoughts about performance were compatible.
  • Withdrew from consideration (prior to winning the project) if/when it became clear there would be a material lacuna between my principles/methodology and the client's.
Upon joining the new firm, the main difference is that my sold, managed and delivered goals were determined by more than just what I thought they should be; however, there wasn't a material disconnect between what my bosses wanted of me and what I wanted for myself -- they're slightly less "people oriented" than I, but that was about it -- so not much changed.

With the affinity your developing among "gun nuts" you have the makings of a new career...After all, a case that displays guns is just a step away from a case for china, silver, books, etc., and you can certainly erect a "velvet rope," never having to accept a commission you don't want.



1_leonardo_da_vinci_self_portrait_no1.jpg


To wit, one of my former schoolmates is a sculptor. He accepted two commissions from me and declined another. He just didn't like the idea and didn't want to do it, so he didn't. He and I are still on good terms and I found someone else to do the job.

Thank you again for your kind words and even better advice.
You have been where i am going.

My health started getting a bit better since i have eliminated processed white sugar from my diet, started using Kratom as my major pain meds, and only use the hydrocodone when absolutely necessary.
Turmeric with food is also helping with the inflammation.

This extra energy is helping me to stay in better shape.
I am thinking about getting a one inch sisal or manila line and seeing if I can climb up it after hanging it from one of the trees.
I have not got the line just yet.

After a winter season of healing, I will see how it goes.
I liked your "velvet rope" metaphor.
 
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